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MELBOURNE: Australia captain Pat Cummins believes his Ashes-winning team will have to alter their approach and be prepared to grind out success on their first tour of Pakistan in 24 years.
Cummins oversaw Australia’s 4-0 romp against England in his first series in charge, but vastly different conditions await them in the three-Test series in Pakistan beginning in Rawalpindi on March 4.
The most obvious one is to win the series,” Cummins said on Friday of his goal in Pakistan where Australia will also play four limited-overs matches.
But I think that might not necessarily look like two wins and one loss or whatever, it might be having to grind out some tough test matches and hold out for a draw.
A hard-fought, five-day grinding out for a draw in the context of a three-match series might be as good as a win.
“We don’t really know what we’re going to expect over there, but sub-continent Test matches can be played quickly or can be played slowly.”
Since their 2004 series triumph in India, Australia have won only five of the 28 Tests they played in Asia, three of them coming against Bangladesh.
Cummins was optimistic his side, despite their lack of experience on sub-continent’s dry wickets, could fix their unflattering record there.
“For a lot of this group, we haven’t played a lot of cricket overseas so if we want to be number one in the world, we need to have a really good showing on these sub-continent tours, and that starts in Pakistan,” Cummins said.
Patience would be key to achieve that and Cummins said both batsmen and bowlers were ready for the rigour.
“Obviously us bowlers getting ready for the Test matches, we’ve had some really long spells in the nets so we’re used to it. But I think it’s that mindset of being okay with ticking along at two runs an over, whereas here you might be used to three or four runs an over,” he added.
Interim coach Andrew McDonald — in charge after Justin Langer quit after the Ashes — admitted there had been “educated guesses” of how the pitches would play with two extra spinners in Mitchell Swepson and Ashton Agar also in the squad alongside Nathan Lyon.
“So we’re covering all bases there, from turning wickets to potentially wickets with grass on [them],” he said. “But we feel the squad’s balanced and there’s enough options for whatever the case may be when we land on the ground.”
The squad has spent the past few days at the Melbourne Cricket Ground preparing, with a spin net set up and the pacemen practising reverse swing, both of which will likely be a factor on the sub-continent.
Australia will jet into Pakistan over the weekend, giving them less than a week to acclimatise for the first Test without any warm-up matches. It will be followed by Tests in Karachi and Lahore before three ODIs and a single Twenty20, all in Rawalpindi.
Cummins added his team was “comfortable” with security arrangements in place for the tour.
“We’ve got to a place where everyone hopping on the plane is comfortable with where it’s all sitting. It’s been a really thorough body of work that the security and the logistics teams have worked through,” Cummins said.
“And obviously the added layer of bio-security in these times as well. So we’re feeling really good and once we get over there, we’re going to be able to just concentrate on the cricket.
“More than anything it’s a really special tour,” he added.“We’re going to fly over there and experience something for the first time. We’re really excited, everyone is in a good place.”